60km to go
The surge by the peloton has reduced to gap to 5:10 but it will be interesting to see if some teams drive the change on the climbs before the drop down to Lausanne and the climb to the line.
Charlotte Kool (Fenix-Premier Tech) kicked clear to take the 13 points and indicate she is riding for the green jersey.
The peloton is moving at speed as they near the intermediate sprint.
INTERMEDIATE SPRINT
Maud Rijnbeek (Volkerwessels), Idoia Eraso (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi), Nikola Nosková (Cofidis) and Océane Mahe (Ma Petite Entreprise) ride through together without a sprint but we’re expecting a battle for the lesser points.
That is why SDWorx are on the front for Wiebes.
This is the moment that Alison Jackson was caught by the peloton.
🏁 73 km – ⏱️5’56”4️⃣🚴♀️<🚴♀️🚴♀️🚴♀️🚴♀️🚴♀️🚴♀️🚴♀️🚗🇨🇦 Alison Jackson’s bid to bridge across comes to an end as she’s caught by the peloton. The bunch now sits 6 minutes behind the leading quartet.La tentative d’Alison Jackson pour rejoindre l’échappée prend fin. elle est rattrappée par… pic.twitter.com/0TZ86YMT7vAugust 1, 2026
Alison Jackson has eased-up and accepted she will not make it across to that attack.
She had crossed her fingers on television but failed to close the gap before the climb.
She has wisely eased-up to safe her legs for other stages and other attacks.
It’s almost time for the intermediate sprint.
75km to go
This the feeling in the peloton at the moment.
You chase! No, you chase! No, you chase!
Meanwhile the time gap is up to 6:00.
Again it was at the back of the peloton.
Another crash in the peloton!
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It looks like Alison Jackson will not get across to the quartet. She has slipped back to 1:20.
90km to go
The four attackers sprint for the QOM points at the top of the Côte de Châbles.
Océane Mahe (Ma Petite Entreprise) goes clear with Idoia Eraso (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) and then wins the surge to the summit. She scores 3 points, with more up fro grabs later in the stage.
Meanwhile, the peloton is spread across the road and is losing time to attack. They are 4:45 now.
It would be incredible if the attackers stay away and fight for victory and the first yellow jersey.
Fortunately the touch of wheels happened near the back of the pack.
Two or three riders went down and others were forced to hit the brakes.
It’s been a fast first hour of racing.
🚴♀️ The leading riders covered 42.3km during the first hour.Le quatuor de tête a parcouru 42,3 km durant la première heure de course. ⌚️#TDFF2026 #WatchTheFemmes pic.twitter.com/bGdc9YEQLzAugust 1, 2026
95km to go
The 1.6km long Côte de Châbles is about to start and so the peloton is moving faster.
The presence of the climbs highlights one of the reasons why the sprinter teams do not want to chase. They fear they will hurt their sprinters on the climbs. Indeed, they will have to ride at the pace of the sprinters on the clmibs and that can only help the attackers, if they have the legs to stay away.
The attacks will also have their own battle as the fight for the QOM points.
This photo captures the sense of a stand-off in the peloton.
Alison Jackson (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93) has dropped Kiara Lylyk (Mayenne-Mombana-MyPie) as she surges to try join the quartet of attackers.
She knows it is probably now and never. It’ll be important to get into the team cars of the four, so she can close the gap.
Alison Jackson (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93) and Kiara Lylyk (Mayenne-Mombana-MyPie) are still chasing the attackers but are getting closer and are only 50 seconds behind. That is still a hard gap to close, especially as the roads begins to climb, with three categorised climbs in the next 50km.
100km to go
The gap is up to 4:20 and still rising….
We need a stand-off meme to explain what is happening in the peloton.
We can imagine that team leaders and road captains are talking but there is no agreement on working togther to chase the attackers. Meanwhile, the kilometres tick down.
Meanwhile, Cédrine Kerbaol of EF is at her team car, trying to resolve a radio problem. The French rider seems ideal for this year’s tough Femmes route.
The riders are close to Lake Neuchâtel.
The gap is growing second by second as the peloton stand-off continues. Surely soneone will blink and start to chase soon, right?
110km to go
For now, the peloton is letting the attackers go away. Their gap is up to 4:00.
We can see all the big teams up front but nobody has placed a rider up front to lead the chase.
There seems to be a game of bluff. No team seems ready to commit a rider to the hard, early work. That is logical with seven-rider teams but allowing the break to go away, including a strong rider like Alison Jackson, could be a mistake.
The stage could be a fascinating tactical stand-off that is indicative of the whole race. If teams refuse to chase, there wil lbe more and more attacks.
Maud Rijnbeek (Volkerwessels), Idoia Eraso (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi), Nikola Nosková (Cofidis) and Océane Mahe (Ma Petite Entreprise) are not waiting for anyone, even former Paris-Roubaix winner Alison Jackson.
The Canadian and Kiara Lylyk (Mayenne-Mombana-MyPie) are 1:20 behind the four.
Red Bull have made a splash with their sponsorship of the FDJ United team. They quickly edited and published this video of Kate Courtney delivering the Red Bull helmets to Demi Vollering ands her teammates before the sign-on.
The family just got bigger.Welcome Red Bull ! 🪽 pic.twitter.com/XgN5ksVeFTAugust 1, 2026
120km to go
Kiara Lylyk (Mayenne-Mombana-MyPie) has also tried to go across to the break.
Behind her we can see EF, Lidl, Movistar and SD Worx riders across the front of the peloton in an apparent sense of control to let the break og away.
The interesting thing now is to see how much of s gap they let the attackers open and then who will do the work to chase the attack.
Alison Jackson (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93) is trying to go across to the quartet.
That’s a clever move by the Canadian. She faces a big effort to join them but the peloton seems to have eased and so the break is formed.
125km to go
A group of four riders have a gap of 40 seconds but we can see Lidl-Trek and FDJ United leading the peloton at pace. The elastic hasn’t snapped yet but the four could have a chance to get away.
The four attackers are: Maud Rijnbeek (Volkerwessels), Idoia Eraso (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi), Nikola Nosková (Cofidis) and Océane Mahe (Ma Petite Entreprise).
130km to go
The early roads roll through the Swiss countryside, offering perfect terrain for early attacks.
Th Mayenne Monbana My Pie, Cofidis and VolkerWessels teams have all sent riders on the attakc but the peloton keeps pullnig them back.
We expect these attacks to continue until the big-name riders and team decide to let a move go clear.
Interestingly, the intermediate sprint comes after 73km of the stage and so the sprinter teams may try to go for the points if a break is not established and given a big gap.
The attacks begin, with a number of the smaller teams trying to place riders in the break of the day.
We expect the early moves to be chased down before the peloton eventually lets a small group go before SDWorx and other sprint teams control the gap.
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It’s always interesting to hear what Lidl-Trek sports director Ina-Yoko Teutenberg has to say about the stage.
Breakaway or sprint for stage one?DS Ina gives her take ⬇️#TDFF2026 pic.twitter.com/Q3bcILLRtdAugust 1, 2026
Cyclingnews can reveal some big breaking news about the involvement of Red Bull in women’s cycling.
Demi Vollering and her FDJ United-Suez teammates are wearing new Red Bull helmets for the stage, marking the start of a new sponsorship.
This was the moment of the roll out. due ot the slow pace through Lausanne, the official stage start is still 5km away.
🚩 Le peloton s’élance de Lausanne ! Le #TDFF2026 est lancé !The peloton rolls out from Lausanne ! #TDFF2026 is underway! 🤩 pic.twitter.com/ZAeZvK9A4aAugust 1, 2026
The TDFF continues to grow and this year has a stacked GC battle on the tough course could take it to even higher heights.
Matilda Price wrote this personal prediction piece as she travelled to Lausanne. It provides perfect context on what we can expect from what is the fifth edition of the modern Tour de France Femmes.
Five years in, this Tour de France Femmes looks like it will be the best edition yet
This is the full race route map and stages of the 2026 Tour de France Femmes.
We’ll have live coverage and the best updates, news, interviews and analysis every day.
The riders face a 9.2km neutralised sector through the streets of Lausanne before the 138km stage officially begins.
C’est Parti! The race announcer shouts out across Lausanne and the riders roll out. The 2026 Tour de France Femmes is underway.
We’re close to the stage start. The Swiss and French national anthems have been played.
It’s time to race!
The testing race route means this year’s race is widen open. For example it will be fascinating to see what happens at UAE Team L’IMAD.
Who is the protected team leader and what will role will La Vuelta Feminina winner Paula Blasi have?
Is there Tour de France Femmes tension brewing at UAE Team L’IMAD?
The riders are lining up for the start as the minutes count down.
There are just five minutes to the start of the 2026 Tour de France Femmes.
This is the map of stage 1. The 138km loop heads north and then south back to Lausanne
It’s hot in Lausanne today, 25C and will be 27C during the stage, so riders are wearing ice vests to stay cool. They are also warming up for a fast, aggressive start to the stage.
☀️ Hot conditions await the peloton today.Des conditions très chaudes attendent le peloton aujourd’hui. 🥵#TDFF2026 #WatchTheFemmes pic.twitter.com/LlAho9mq3dAugust 1, 2026
Vollering spoke on Friday afternoon and Cyclingnews was there.
“I think now what has changed mostly is that I come quite calm into this Tour de France,” she said.
“I don’t have the feeling that I need to save my season, for example, on this Tour because I’ve won already so many beautiful races, and I’ve really enjoyed this whole season with the whole team. We did such a great beginning of the season already.”
This is our full story on Vollering’s hopes and ambitions for the Tour.
Demi Vollering and her FDJ United-Suez are on stage.
Vollering admits she is emotional to be back at the Tour, indeed, she isa almost in tears due to the emotions.
Interestingly, Vollering and the FDJ riders are wearing Red Bull sponsored helmets. Is this the start of something new for the French team?
We are about to find out.
This is our stage 2 preview.
The stage has been classified as a flat stage by ASO, but a true mass sprint is unlikely as many riders will not be able to follow the strongest on that final ramp.
There’s a real party atmosphere at the start in Lausanne. Today is Swiss National Day, the national holiday of Switzerland. A bike race is as great way to celebrate.
SD Worx are on stage at the sign-on and it will be interesting to see how they race the Tour and stage 1. It could be a great chance for Lorena Wiebes but if the racing explodes then Lotte Kopecky could have a chance.
We’re counting down to the start of the opening stage, with the riders signing on at the start in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The sun is out and with the yellow jersey up for grabs at the fdinish, it should be a intense, highly-fought stage.
Cyclingnews in on the ground in Lausanne, with Matilda Price and Dani Ostanek speaking to riders and teams for all the latests news.
We will have updates on all the action of today’s first stage and every stage of the Tour de France Femmes.
Hello and welcome to stage 1 of the Tour de France Femmes.